


though everyone will know the truth they'll still just make believe

by lipstickgremlin



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Homestuck
Genre: Anxiety, Bad Decisions, Cults, F/M, Knitting, Sibling Incest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-06
Packaged: 2019-04-19 07:37:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14232456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lipstickgremlin/pseuds/lipstickgremlin
Summary: rose and dave prepare for a battle. alright, mostly rose prepares. everything is fine, nothing is wrong, she definitely isn't on the verge of a massive anxiety attack, she has never experienced anxiety in her life. ever. this is fine.(or, the fire emblemstuck fic that no one asked for, but i wrote anyways. here there be dragon cults.)





	though everyone will know the truth they'll still just make believe

**Author's Note:**

> was anyone really asking for a fire emblem/homestuck crossover? no. did i write it anyway? yes. did the universe really need an au in which dave and rose are cultists for an evil bodysnatching dragon (because this is fire emblem)? well, probably not, but fuck it.  
> warnings: anxiety and general incestuous bullshittery. wouldn't think i'd have to say this, but like, none of this is healthy. don't yell at me because you think i'm promoting marrying your sister to have evil dragon babies or whatever.  
> at least no one is mind controlled and no one's love interest is on fire, so we're still one up on genealogy of the holy wars.

The presentation is always the hardest part of preparing for a battle. Not the tactics, nor worrying for their lives, because their strategies are always perfect, and why would they be scared to lose when they are guaranteed to win? Whenever the twins fight together, and they always do, they succeed. They will tear a bloody swathe through this battlefield, like the last one and the one before that, and return victorious, to the praise of their elders. Or, well, most of their elders, but that doesn’t matter. Right now, Rose has to plan their entrance.

There are several ideas, of course, but she needs some input. Luckily, her brother is right there, as always. She shifts her stare from the book she has been pretending to read to his face, looking up from her position resting on his lap.  "Dearest brother," she begins, "I have a proposition." He meets her gaze and quirks an eyebrow, and she fights down the catch in her breath that comes with looking into his eyes. His eyes are stunning, brightly colored and eye-catching, and sometimes she feels as though she could pretend to be the swooning heroine from some lurid story, safe within the arms of her knight protector. And then he opens his mouth and ruins the moment, as per usual. "Ooh? What sort of proposition, Ms. Lalonde? I'd like you to know that I have my honor to think about, I'm a guy who needs some wooing here and there, maybe some flowers and fancy jewelry. No half-assing it, you gotta go all in to get it on with this chaste maiden right here."

She lets out a sigh, and says, "Not the sort of proposition I was talking about, but I'll be certain to start wooing you the moment this coming battle is over. Now, regarding the coming battle, I was thinking about our entrance."  
He looks interested, which is good. Maybe she can get out her plans before he starts up again.

"I was thinking that you could ride in on Jaspers with me," she pauses to brush some hair out of her face, "before leaping off and impaling an enemy. Or, well, possibly a Risen, it isn't like we won't have a few spares. In any case, I believe that this will be substantially intimidating enough to shake all but the hardiest of our foes." Dave nods along with her plan, and looks deep in thought.

"Sounds good to me," he says, "There's just one problem. Your horse doesn't have much room, people will start to _talk_. You've gotta propose before we can be that close, don't you care about propriety and all that shit?" He's got a stupidly smug grin on his face, and Rose faces her daily dilemma of finding whether she finds this frustrating or endearing. Today, she decides on endearing, then swiftly decides to pretend she never did.

"Dave, we belong to a cult of draconic worship, human sacrifice, and incestuous mayhem. Propriety has long ago been tossed aside, never to be seen again." Dave snorted, and Rose couldn't deny that it dragged an embarrassing laugh out of her as well. That wouldn't do. Her laugh needed to be intimidating, and so did Dave's. They should be able to burst into mocking, menacing laughter simultaneously on cue. As it was right now, they wouldn't be able to intimidate anyone by laughing who wasn't already intimidated by them already. This was important! Presentation was key to their survival, after all. Not as though their survival was in doubt. Rose had no doubt that the two of them had long ago proved their worth.

And besides, they were the only two who carried the proper concentration of the Dark Dragon's blood. It was through them that his (or her, the legends were surprisingly unclear on the topic of dragon genders, which should probably merit further study,) unholy vessel would be birthed, to cleanse this world. They were absolutely necessary, and replacing them would be almost impossible. After all, it was impossible to guarantee twins, or even two successive children. They had been the only two of mother dearest's progeny to make it past early childhood, everyone's hopes were pinned on them. And besides, could anyone say that they were not loyal in body and soul? When had they ever given anyone reason to believe that they were giving less than one hundred percent of their dedication to this goal?

These thoughts distracting her, it took Rose several moments to realize that Dave was snapping his fingers in front of her face.

"Hello, Rose? Land to Rose? Are you there? Have you died? Woe is me, I'm alone now," he rambled, "I've been cruelly abandoned to my fate, I'll die alone in an alleyway and be eaten by cats." He was still continuing this train of thought as Rose put herself back together, piece by piece.

"Oh, please, Dave. You know I'd never leave you to be eaten by feral cats, not when Jaspers is right here." Dave gasped in mock horror.

"Jaspers is a herbivore, you monster. Respect his diet."

Rose shook her head, and said, "Don't be ridiculous, pegasi will eat meat if they can get it. It would be a worthy send off for you, you shouldn't worry." Dave flopped backwards, tugging Rose along with him. Her book fell to the side as he pulled her into a hug.

"What, because I'll always be with you? That's so sappy, I didn't even think you could be that sappy. You're melting, Rose, you're going to start leaking sugary syrup all over me, my cape will be all gross and sticky. That's all your fault, Rose, this tragedy could have been averted." Neither of them could keep a straight face at that, though Rose made a valiant effort.

“Well,” she said, between hastily stifled snickers, ”that just won’t do. The only thing that your cape should be getting sticky with is the blood of our vanquished foes. I’ll just have to endeavor to never show you these innermost feelings ever again, and become as cold as the frozen winds.” She could have kept going on, but they still had preparations to make, and as comfortable as laying on her brother was, she couldn’t work like this. She untangled herself from him as gracefully as possible, which wasn’t very, and attempted to retrieve her book. Dave, however, didn’t let go.

“No, don’t leave,” he said, as she tugged herself out of his grip, “I’ll waste away here, pining for you. Why would you do this to me. You’re killing me, Rose, you’re killing your brother.” She playfully swatted his hands away as he continued on.

“As much as you pine, I have soldiers to meet with, plots to plot, schemes to scheme, and a pegasus to brush. You _also_ have things to be doing, dearest beloved brother, and pining doesn’t get any of them done.” Dave sighed, and shook his head.

“Rose, there’s no time limit. Everyone you gotta meet with can still get their time with your sweet tactics and badass tome, but clearly, you need to spend a little bit more time here first. How can you woo me without hanging out with me? You gotta hang out here, just for a bit, come on.” He gave his best pleading look, and Rose found that her duties really could wait just a little while longer.

“Fine, but only for five minutes. And because I’m delaying my important scheming to help curb your apparent crushing loneliness, we will spend this entire time discussing our battle plans. Preparation is still key,” she said, and as serious as she was trying to be, she didn’t really mind procrastinating just a little bit longer. Her book was good, and her brother made a surprisingly comfortable pillow, and both of those things were far more entertaining that the bores that she would have to speak with soon. Jaspers still needed to be brushed, but that was more to relax anyways. There were other people who could handle that. Really, as long as she wrote her battle plan out soon, it could be distributed without the need for her to talk to anyone at all. She could quite possibly just spend the rest of the day here, cozy and comfortable, making light banter with Dave. It would certainly be the best way to calm pre-battle nerves.

She dropped back down and flipped her book back to her page. As intriguing as the book was, however, a nap was starting to sound nicer. Maybe just for a moment or so, she decided, and Rose closed her eyes. Maybe for a bit longer, she reconsidered.

When she woke, it was dark out, which meant it had to have at least been an hour. Dave was snoring peacefully beside her, and her book had at some point been dropped. Luckily, she didn’t seem to have lost her bookmark, which would have been the most horrible and undeserved of tragedies. It was a chore to untangle herself from her brother without waking him, but through persistence, she managed it.

She quietly made her way out of the room, and went to continue her feverish preparations for the coming battle. Her nap had been very relaxing, but she was starting to yet again be consumed by… Not anxiety, because there was nothing to be anxious about. It was some other emotion. Excitement, perhaps? Yes, that had to be it. She was excited to be able to engage in another fight, that was all. There could be no other reason. She wouldn’t allow there to be any other reasons.

She worked long into the night, eventually falling asleep on top of a pile of papers. Waking up, she realized that at some point someone had put a blanket over her. There was no way she couldn’t know who had done it, but it was easier to act as though it was entirely impossible for her to figure it out. Less embarrassing for them, less weak points for people to exploit, all of that made her immediately decide to never bring it up.

And really, even if she did bring it up, even if she didn’t deny it, he would. Well, he wouldn’t deny doing it, but he’d cover it in so many layers of irony that there would be no point. Honesty was a foreign concept to both of them, and that was for the best. People like them didn’t get to have open emotions. It would end badly for everyone involved. Rose had never seen or given a genuine expression of love, and it was going to stay that way. She was going to lock her emotions up in a metaphorical box, and then someday she would die.

It was good to note that her battle plans were, in fact, all written out. She could distribute them once she was fully clothed and her makeup was done. As it was, she looked frightful. When she checked in the nearby mirror, she was uncomfortable with everything she saw. Her hair was a bird’s nest, she’d slept in her makeup, and that meant that everything was smeared all over. This would not do. She had to clean up immediately. Grabbing a pile of clothing, she left her room.

Sneaking around was normally a chore, but she seemed to have woken up at the sweet spot before anyone else did. Washing up was normally relaxing, but her awkward sleep schedule seemed to be still affecting her. That was far more frustrating that it should be. She kept feeling her heart beat, even as she rinsed her hair out. How vexing.

It didn’t take long to get fully dressed, which Rose felt vaguely disappointed about, for reasons she couldn’t place. She dropped off her plans in the appointed place, and was left with a feeling of restlessness. No one was awake, which was a blessing except that it meant that Dave was also not awake. She had no one to talk to. Perhaps it was time to get back to her knitting, or her book. There was nothing to do but wait until Dave woke up. Rose went back to her room, and dug up a knitting project she had been meaning to continue. It was going to be an elaborate shawl, if she ever actually got around to finishing it. She’d intended for it to be purple, but she’d had to swap to red yarn, and the swap had killed her motivation.

It was nice to pick it back up again, she decided. It wasn’t at all frustrating to get back into the patterns of this project, and before she knew it she was making progress. It helped take up the time until everyone else began to awake, and she was so engrossed in her work that she didn’t even notice when Dave walked in.

“Is that gonna be our get-along scarf?” he asked, which definitely didn’t startle her at all, and she definitely didn’t jump out of her seat a little. Of course not. That would be silly.

“Actually, brother dear, it’s a _shawl_ , as you can clearly see, and I don’t think we will require its help in getting along.” She put her knitting down and turned to face him.

“In any case, I’m assuming that if you are awake, then everyone else has stirred and is preparing for the long day ahead?” she asked.

“Bro’s sure awake, think I saw Mom passed out somewhere in the library,” he said, then paused to let Rose heave a sigh before continuing, “Everyone else is up, it looks like we’ll be moving out soon. Apparently your battle plans were a’okay, because that’s what we’re going with. We just gotta not fuck up now, gotta make sure everything doesn’t spiral out of control, like a fucking pegasus that got shot in the wing. Or like, like a rampaging dragon, flying all everywhere and setting shit on fire.”

Rose let him ramble, and reminded herself that she had done as well as she possibly could. No plan would ever survive contact with the enemy, of course, so really it only had to hang in there for the first few minutes of the battle. That was fine. Everything would certainly work out well, and nothing would go wrong. There was nothing to be scared of, and she wasn’t remotely scared anyways. It was fine.

She cut her brother’s rambling off, asking, “How much time do we have before we leave?”

“Maybe ten minutes,” he said, and she nodded, picking up her knitting to put it away. Silently, she put it in her bag, just in case. They waited, and waited, until it was time to leave. Together, they headed out at the front of the line, as always.  


“We’re here,” she said, hovering above the battlefield, her brother clinging to her back.

“Are you ready?” she asked, and if the grin he replied with was more nervous than elated, it didn’t matter. They would be in their element soon enough. Together, they dove towards the ground.


End file.
